The wedding!!!

Oh man....lots of planning, lots of celebrating, lots of stress!! For me at least...having an unexpected pregnancy putting my due date 4 days before a wedding where I was to be a bridesmaid made things....interesting. After buying 4 different sizes in the dress, I finally chose the best one, right after having the baby...sadly, it's a size I hope not to fit again. Anyway, the wedding went off without a hitch! My kids were awesome and during the wedding, Cole and Kaitlyn took a long nap in the air conditioned car with my mom. My mom was a LIFESAVER!! She was at my beck and call and she was a HUGE help! I couldn't have made it without her. Plus, she's great company :) Dan looked so handsome in his tux and gave really one of the most amazing, heart felt best man speeches I've ever heard. People were laughing, then crying, then cheering and clapping, and it all ended with a standing ovation!! I was proud...and felt so lucky to have such an amazing husband...I think all the ladies were jealous hehe:) The food was delicious, the music was fun, and the company was great. We stayed until our kids absolutely conked out and then headed for home....it took us 2 1/2 hours to get home from Irvine!! There was an accident blocking all lanes at 1 in the morning! I was sooo tired I barely made it home by 2am. Needless to say, we were zombies the next day, recovering from the celebration! I didn't get my camera out until right before we left so everyone is all sweaty and exhausted in my pictures...but I figured...the photographing was in good hands...Bluelily's!!! It was fun having Mr and Mrs Bluelily around too:) And hopefully, we'll get to post Dan's speech that Benny captured on video. Kendra looked beautiful as ever and Nick couldn't keep that big grin off his face...he snagged a good one!

4th of July

Well, we've already experienced that life must go one when number 3 comes...there's no stopping us. So, at three days old, Kaitlyn had her first 4th of July parade and fireworks show. No we didn't go to the Temecula Old Town parade...we learned our lesson from last year, but all the cousins and neighbors by Shannon's house decorated their bikes for a bike parade. Drew had just learned how to ride his bike so he was fearlessly speeding back and forth with the older kids...sometimes not looking ahead...yikes!! Kaitlyn was sporting her festive attire and slept through pretty much everything. We had a delicious BBQ of burgers and hotdogs and then went outside in the balmy air for the bike parade and some fireworks!

Visitors...these kids could not WAIT to see their newest cousin!

The long awaited!!

The details:It's seriously long and has detail so be warned.
I was scheduled to come in to the hospital at 6:30 am on Tuesday the 30th to be induced. My doctor told me I didn't need to call but just to come in. At 5 am, I got a call from the hospital. All full. She said they would call if anything opened up. Sleep that night was ok, but sleeping in anticipation of anything makes for a less restful night as it is. I was disappointed but tried to get some sleep. I had stuff on my list of things to do that I hadn't got to so I dropped my kids off at my visiting teacher's house and ran a few errands real quick. Then I came home and fed the kids lunch and put them down for a nap while I did some laundry and mopped my nasty sandy floor. As I was mopping, I kept trying my doctor's office (which had a busy signal all day) I just kept redialing and redialing. When I finally got through, the nurse said my doctor wasn't even in that day...she didn't say why. She said she'd call the hospital to find out if they had room. 20 minutes later, a nurse from the hospital called and said they were ready to induce me! It was 3:30pm and they said to come in at 4:30. We gathered everything together and called my mother-in-law to come over until the kids woke up.
I checked in and it was 5:15 by the time I was all gowned up and answering all their questions. The nurse was nice but she was a real chatterbox so I was like get this show on the road!! It wasn't until 6:45 that she actually started me on the pitocin. I thought for sure I'd have a baby by midnight....until they told me my doctor was sick so she probably wouldn't come in to break my water and I would probably have to just have my water break on it's own. I was NOT happy about that. It's when the doctor breaks my water that everything usually just goes quickly from there on out. So, we hunkered down for a long night. I didn't want to get an epidural if it would slow things down, so I endure just a few sporadic painful contractions, and finally at 11pm, I was at a 4 and she said that getting an epidural wouldn't slow anything down and encouraged me not to wait if I wanted to stay ahead of the pain.
The anesthesiologist came...and nice older, stout man...he was fast and he was good. No dirty fingernails, no foul language (like the guy last time)....just professional. And he did it perfectly...it was distributed evenly so I didn't feel anything, but I was still able to feel pressure which helped me to still be able to read my body's signals. I decided to get some sleep. So did Dan...on the floor (eeewe!--he was on a blanket though, but still) My mom and mother-in-law tried their best to snooze in their chairs (poor things!) I drifted in and out of sleep and the nurse came in every hour to check on my and help me change sides. Finally somewhere around 2:30am or so I was at an 8. By 3:15 or so, I could tell that the baby had dropped and was STILL waiting for my water to break. I felt so much pressure that I was sure she was coming, and sure enough, I was at a 10 and they called my sick doctor around 3:30. Right as she was arriving, by water started to break. As they set up the bed, she had to break the bag of water all the way...which she said it was even difficult for her to break--I'm thinking...YEAH if you would have come and done it for me this wouldn't have taken so long!! As soon as she did that, her head was right there and they were sure it wouldn't take long. It didn't--half a push and out came her head, and half another push and out she came!! I only needed 2 stitches for a tiny tear which I was SOOO happy not to get an episiotomy.
As soon as she came out, and placed her on me...I was instantly relieved to see that she was PERFECT! She was clean and pink right from the start. She is so beautiful and all the fears I was having the previous week melted away. They cleaned her up and weighed her...7 pounds 14.4 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. She has the most perfect tiny round head and pink skin. Really as soon as they were cleaning her I knew that her name was Kaitlyn Reese.
Dan and I had talked about it on Sunday and Shannon had mentioned that they were thinking of naming Audrey Kate...which I knew, but they were going to actually name her Kaitlyn and call her Kate. I remember thinking about how we thought about Kaitlyn and Kailin for Allison but I didn't think much of it after that until the next morning, I was lying in bed and I thought, "Kaitlyn Reese." I liked the sound of it better than just Kate Reese. I also liked the fact that since I had a hang up about so many people naming their babies Kate, that it was just slightly different, but wee can still call her Kate. Not to mention, Dan loves nick names so when I mentioned the name, he liked it and so the credit goes to Shannon! It was the first time in months that we both really felt like...that's it!! It was so frustrating not feeling like the names we had were just right.
My mom headed home and Dan and his mom followed her into the nursery to watch her get her bath and everything. I tried to get a little sleep. Finally, they returned, Dan and his mom headed home...it was light outside now...around 6am.
A nurse made one attempt to help me get up but my legs were still too numb. When they finally got me up, I about fainted and they had to use the smelling salts to keep me up, and then, I had to puke. Not fun. After not being able to eat or drink for 12 hours, I downed the little mommy cocktail they make with cranberry juice and my stomache decided that wasn't such a good idea. I headed to my shared room...joy. Kaitlyn slept like a champ...she had nursed so well right after she was born, at around 4:30am, and they came in to take her to take her security picture, and then to see the pediatrician. They changed her diapers for me while she was gone, and I honestly spent an hour trying to get her to wake up enough to eat from 9:30 to 10:30am. She went sooo long! I actually called a nurse in to help me get her awake...I tried everything--I took off all her clothes, changed her diaper, tickled her--she was just OUT. Which would have been even sweeter...had I had my own room and not had to wake up to my roommate's baby every hour.
Andrew came in real quick in the morning to meet her, then her Pappa! Then Dan brought the kids in. Ugg...Allison was soo stinkin' adorable with her. I'm so glad I captured some video of them together...I think they will be close sisters. Cole was more into climbing on and off my bed and eating the cookies left over from the ones I made for the nurses. My parents came as well and had to convince Alli that they get to hold her too :)
After they left, I found out that she got the clear from the pediatrician to go home that day, and I could go home too as long as my blood work turned out ok. I was sooo stoked...no more roommate nonsense. I took a shower, and then Wendy came to take pictures of her....I couldn't have been more excited. I've always wanted cool hospital pictures of my babies...and now I have some of Kaitlyn!!
Then she and Shannon swapped places and Shannon came to visit by herself. The girls were sooo bummed that they don't allow kids that aren't siblings to visit. I watched the lame discharge video and then they said I was free!!!!


She is sleeping so much I'm beginning to think I should wake her up to feed her...but when you're in a dead sleep at night...the long breaks are AWESOME! She ate at 9:30 last night and I went to bed at 11pm, then she didn't get up until 3:30am! I was shocked and felt rested. She didn't go back to bed for 2 hours but I was so glad I got some sleep finally. I'm sure it was just a first night treat.
Well, there you have it...more detail than you ever cared to read. Thanks Wendy for the precious frozen moments you captured!!

Last visit to the beach before quarentine

So I've been wanting to go to the beach for a while and now that summer is here...I'll be having a baby and won't be able to deal with the sand and the sun...so our last day before the baby was to come...I decided...I'm going to the beach!!! We had the perfect day...it was a bit cloudy but the sun broke through and I have to admit that I said a little thankful prayer because it felt like it was a perfect day made just for me. The kids LOVE the beach and they had a ball digging in the sand and running away from the waves. Speaking of waves...we went to a small...short shore part of the beach and the waves kicked us out eventually as the tide came all the way to the rocks!!! I was SOO glad to get a beach day in before we're stuck at home for a while....but if anyone wants to brave the beach with MY kids....they'd love to go!!!!

For Posterity's sake!

Del Mar Fair

One sure fire way to go into labor (or at least I thought) walk around the fair for hours. Unfortunately, my shoes were all too tight--due to fat feet--so my only option was flip flops...I was dying by the end of the day. Cole was brave and fed the goats...Alli decided that she didn't want slobber on her hands.

They loved this car ride...it whipped them around...one kid couldn't hack it and they had to stop it to get him off.

This right here is what makes the fair so fun for us as parents...look at that look of sheer joy on their faces!

Look how darling these kiddies look. Apparently pregnant women aren't allowed on the carousel...I guess I could fly off?

We love the food there too! We never fail to get funnel cake....My mother-in-law liked hers so much, she decided to powder her nose with it :)
Watching our kids live it up in the little kid rides zone was worth it! They had SO much fun together and they were such buddies!
And as always...a tradition is to get photos taken together in the photo booth...it sure is getting crowded in there!